PETER HOWSON, one of Scotland’s most successful painters, has launched an outspoken attack on leading Brit Art figures Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, claiming they are “freaks” whose work has no artistic merit.

The former official war artist in Bosnia, whose clients include Madonna and David Bowie, said the “ego driven” Emin and Hirst’s efforts are “garbage” and that they are more concerned with making money than producing outstanding work.

Howson, whose latest exhibition opened in London last week, said the pair were popular because of the hype generated by powerful backers and that their art would be forgotten by future generations.

“Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin aren’t artists as far as I’m concerned, they are just show people,” said Glasgow-based Howson, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. “Hirst’s genius is nothing to do with art, it’s to do with money-making. He’s a very smart operator and he’s got a very smart operation behind him.

“Emin is just basically a foolish girl who’s been taken on and made desirable. She’s a bit like that Gok Wan programme which has nothing to do with feminism but everything to do with freakery.”

Hirst’s works include a shark in formaldehyde and a diamond-encrusted skull. A recent auction at Sotheby’s of 223 new pieces from the artist raised £111m. He was recently named the most powerful person in the art world by magazine Art Review.

Emin’s creations include an installation of her unmade bed strewn with condoms and dirty underwear and a tent inscribed with the names of every person she had slept with. A retrospective of her work is on show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

However Howson said they were a modern phenomenon whose work would have no longevity. “They are just freaks basically. I would say their work will definitely have no impact in years to come. I don’t believe they are going to last that long.

“Their stuff is just pure garbage, I don’t see any artistic worth in it. You just have to walk through The National Gallery in London to see the great painters of the past and to see the difference.

“Hirst and Emin’s work is really ego driven to the extent that they pour out their inner selves to such an extent that they are empty. It’s popular at the moment because people are told it’s popular. They are run by Larry Gagosian and Jay Jopling [art dealers] and people like that who are very powerful and it’s all hype. Obviously my work is hyped up as well but the difference is that my work’s good.”

Howson, 50, was speaking after he launched a new exhibition at Flowers East gallery in London called the Harrowing of Hell, which he says depicts “the true suffering of Christ”. One of the most evocative images depicts Christ on the cross descending into Hell to “save sinners”.

The collection, which features four large oil paintings and 29 oak panel drawings, has already been bought by a foreign female art collector for £1m and will be taken overseas when the exhibition closes on November 22.

In May, Howson set a new world record for his work at Sotheby’s when the Three Faces of Eve, a triptych, sold for £300,500, three times its guide price.

He was commissioned this month to produce the most significant Roman Catholic work of art in Scotland since the Reformation. Church leaders have asked him to paint the Martyrdom of St John Ogilvie, a huge 26ft by 16ft work for the interior of St Andrew’s cathedral in Glasgow.

Howson also vented his frustration at the modern art world’s attempts to shock and said he would concentrate on creating moving, religious images.

“The art world has become so perverse. I’m trying to stop it from becoming meaningless. I’m trying to make people see something beautiful and something powerful rather than just something that’s shocking in a kind of infantile way.

“The prime motive should never be about money and it seems to be about money now.

“I have never been in the art world, I have never been part of it.

“I would rather hang about with plumbers and electricians than artists.”

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